Men's fashion and the other random stuff that interests me.

Jacket Required – Part 2

Here’s the second part of my round-up of the best bits from London’s Jacket Required trade show. Although I didn’t have time to get round the whole show hopefully the images in this and the previous post will give you a good idea of what was there and what’s coming up for next season.

Portobello’s Garbstore had a large range at the show with plenty of shirts including plaids, chambrays (both blue and the speckled white above) and a few multi-paneled pieces. Their well known parka jacket is updated with contrast pocket detailing for the next season and their chinos have been given a large splash of colour with light blues and purple amongst the khaki.

There was plenty of colour on show on the knitwear side too plus some interesting techniques utilised across some lovely pieces – especially the blue and white two thread jumper with its loose knit and reinforced shoulders and elbows. Moving on there was some good outerwear at LA Panoplie in myriad colours and the colourful theme was also in attendance in the bags of Sandqvist and their mix of canvas and leather.

Ben Sherman’s Modern Classics line has once again seen another leap forward with some brilliant jackets with fully taped inners and lots of detailing in a bright blue or the washed out orange pictured, button-downs made here in the UK from quality Japanese fabrics and loads of other shirt styles in checks, stripes and the odd floral. Knitwear was made in Scotland and legs were catered for with shorts and chinos.

Velour had a good showing, again with loads of colour on show (bright colours are clearly going to be everywhere next season in a big way) in the form of polo shits and great jersey pieces in addition to thier usual sharp shirts and more tailored pieces. Suit also had a big range on display and it was their chinos ranging from yellow to light blue, olive and shades of grey which I’ll be investigating further soon.

Footwear of a casual kind was in good hands (or feet?) with the many models Pointer had on display. With coloured soles and a great take on the Espadrille hybrid on display, plus updates of their classic styles and some nifty looking low cut, super light hiking boots, there was lots on their stand to look at in detail.

Next door was Penfield and their absolute belter of a jacket in bright yellow with contrast black metal clips (ala Cabourn) and cork toggles – a brilliant bit of kit, it’ll no doubt fly out of shops when it goes on the rails. Veja had a good spread of their ethical products including their Méditerranée that I featured back in May (find that here) and finally YMC had a few pieces at the show, with a nice burgundy and navy knitted blazer with cats eye buttons and a lovely bit of knitwear too, shame they weren’t showing more to be honest.

And that was what I looked at, chatted about and snapped. There was loads more that I unfortunately didn’t get to but time wasn’t on my side. Still, this post and the former should hopefully give a good insight into most of what was at the show. Personally I thought it proved to be a decent first stab at this and I’m certainly looking forward to the next one, long may Jacket Required continue.